ALGERIA is suffering a potato shortage because officials have imposed strict controls on the use of fertiliser to stop al-Qaeda militants using it as a bomb-making ingredient, farmers have said.
Security experts say ammonium compounds, used by farmers to improve crop yields, have also been found in bombs detonated by Algerian militants affiliated to al-Qaeda.
State security forces in this north African country have cracked down hard on th
e insurgents, but farmers say there was an unforeseen consequence: a kilo of potatoes in the capital now costs more than three times what it used to.
"Lack of fertilisers, particularly ammonia, is the key reason behind the rise in the price of potatoes," said Azizou Redouane, 28, a farmer from the Ain Defla region 75 miles west of Algiers.
"To prevent armed groups from fabricating bombs with ammonia, the security forces are tightening control over the distribution of fertilisers. The direct impact is a poor harvest and a rise in prices."
Algerian farmers have to apply to their local chamber of agriculture, a farmers' syndicate, for approval to obtain fertiliser. Farmers said even if they were given clearance to buy ammonia, in some cases they were still required to bring the chemical to their farms under police escort to make sure it did not fall into the wrong hands.
Algeria was plunged into a civil conflict between government forces and Islamist rebels in 1992 after the military scrapped legislative elections because a radical Islamic party was poised to win.
